Prophecy and destiny are fairly common tropes in many fantasy settings, and they can produce very compelling storylines. However, weaving them into a TRPG requires reconciling the forgone conclusions that prophecy implies with player agency, and the often random nature of a games mechanics.
One approach I’ve taken in the past to including prophecy at the table was to have a prophecy forewarn the party of a great evil. A powerful opponent with a scheme that they would otherwise be unprepared for. The campaign then hinged around their efforts to try and undo the machinations of the enemy that was trying to fulfill this prophecy. This worked pretty well, though there is always the risk that the party fails completely to stop the prophecy, in which case you have to be willing to go ahead with the world changing consequences or else have some deus ex machina prevent it.
In my current campaign, the party are battling against the fall of civilisation. While it’s unlikely they can totally reverse the decline, they can at least save their small part of the world. To make use of prophecy in this campaign I’ve tried to drop clues as to the potential cyclical nature of history in the world and allow the players to discover what might have happened as part of previous cycles. This helps to give some implicit prophecy while still allowing the players to alter how things will play out.
The other approach I’ve paired with this is dilemmas presented as prophecy. Offering the players a few choices and then using visions to give extra weight to their choices by revealing potential consequences for those choices. I like this approach as it leaves the players with all their agency and allows them to become much more invested in the outcome. If they chose to take the time to save the small town but it means the big bad has more time to amass and army, that’s an outcome that they’ve opted for - not just something happening behind the scenes or in spite of their actions.
Overall its a bit of a balancing act, and not something that you can easily just throw into a campaign without some planning. However, if you can get the balance right it can end up adding real weight to your player’s decisions.
rpgs
Prophecy and destiny are fairly common tropes in many fantasy settings, and they can produce very compelling storylines. However, weaving them into a TRPG requires reconciling the forgone conclusions that prophecy implies with player agency, and the often random nature of a games mechanics.
alien rpgs review
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tech
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alien rpgs review
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